The present invention relates to a machine for overturning containers such as bottles having a bottom which is not flat and the like.
It is known in the art of filling and sealing containers with various shapes that there exists the need also to fill those containers which have a shape without a flat bottom suitable for keeping them in an erect position during displacements on conveying devices which bring the opening of the container opposite the nozzles for filling said container and opposite the devices for applying the stopper.
In order to overcome the problem associated with the lack of a flat bottom, the containers are therefore inserted into specials supports which are substantially parallelepiped and which have an internal seat corresponding to the shape of the container and the associated bottom so that the support/container -assembly may be fed towards the filling machine, inside which the container, still carried by the associated support, is filled and sealed with a stopper and unloaded from the machine for the subsequent packaging operations, before performing which operations the container must be separated from its support which is in turn recycled and brought back to the loading station or to an associated store.
The technical problem which is posed, therefore, is that of providing an automatic apparatus for application to conventional lines for filling and packaging containers such as bottles and the like, in particular those without a flat bottom, which is designed to remove a container from an associated support, overturn it through 180xc2x0 and feed it to the conveyors belts (or similar conveying devices) on which it rests at its end with the stopper which has a flat upper surface suitable for acting as a base for the overturned container, thus allowing conveying thereof without the need for an auxiliary support.
These technical problems are solved according to the present invention by a machine for overturning containers and the like which comprises a fixed base supporting movement means, movable along a closed path, for said containers, in which devices for gripping/releasing, raising/lowering, in a direction substantially perpendicular to the direction of movement, and overturning the bottles are integrally joined to the said movement means, means for controlling and actuating the corresponding operating sequences being associated with said means.